2.5's good/bad/ugly

after some nail biting that lasted acouple weeks i've gotten myself a pair of 2.5's and being 10 minutes from home did not hurt either.
after taking some before pics i naturally had to hook them up and see what i had as a baseline.
good news- only one dead EMIM.right speaker bottom driver.
now then- do i right away buy one used for 100 to 150 dollars as a spare and
or pull this one out and someone guide me through an evaluation or both.

of course the woofer foams are shot and as i understand it i should NOT refoam with some brand x replacement.

yall school this 2.5 upstart!

oh, here they are...:




etc....

I always loved the look and sound of the 2.5 and 4.5s though they take some juice to get them going. One of the most beautiful cabinets ever. Once you fix the drivers and oil up that oak, you'll be smiling.

oil was easy!

now if i could rub something on the faulty EMIM and get correct surrounds...
unfortunately i think it going to be money that i need to rub on them!

moebuster said:

after some nail biting that lasted acouple weeks i've gotten myself a pair of 2.5's and being 10 minutes from home did not hurt either.
after taking some before pics i naturally had to hook them up and see what i had as a baseline.
good news- only one dead EMIM.right speaker bottom driver.
now then- do i right away buy one used for 100 to 150 dollars as a spare and
or pull this one out and someone guide me through an evaluation or both.

of course the woofer foams are shot and as i understand it i should NOT refoam with some brand x replacement.

yall school this 2.5 upstart!

oh, here they are....

Click to expand...

Don't buy an emim yet. Check all fuses and clean the pots. If this doesnt do then: Unhook it and Check for resistance first. Should be around 3.5 ohm. If it has some resistance Then swop it with another driver or just use a jumper and swop wires top to bottom driver. If no go than you have a xo issue. If there's no resistance than you have need of diaphragm repair. Lots of info on that here depending on what problem you have. Do not take the emim apart without mounting it in a jig of some sort.

I use one with 4 long nails with the heads cut off in a board. Put the nails in the board where your mounting holes are. You can remove the four screws on the left and right side of the emim without the jig. Than place it on the jig and remove the top and bottom screws. As you remove them keep a hold on the clam as it wants to separate. When the those are removed use a razor blade to carefully separate the diaphragm from the two clam pieces as the may be stuck fast together. Straighten the terminals so the fit through the slots too. Do not remove the inner four screws that are closest to the center of the driver (4 each side). Those hold the magnet frames to the clam. The magnets are extremely strong and fragile.

If you do a search for emim repair in this forum you will find all the issues you might have and some remedies. If the foil is separating from the diaphragm they may have been over driven for an extended period of time. I have not had to fix broken traces on an emim but have done several emits.
Jim

Thanks-
now then about those woofers...
orange co. speakers claims to have the correct surround.
i do not relish the idea of paying out ,when alls said and done 200 dollars to have watkins refoam these.i'm not saying i won't- but how hard can it be?
has anyone done theirs or has everyone sent them out?
the are bigboy toys and i may have to pay the price of admission-

For the woofers I'd go with Mr. Watkins. He checks them over to make sure they are working as designed and he uses a surround which is supposed to be the longest lasting type. Shipping from Alabama to Tennessee should be much more affordable that from Idaho to TN. I'd rather have the peace of mind that spending a few more bucks would bring me by having Bill do them.

Larry D.

-and i may do that.i just need to get my mind around a 200 dollar refoam job with the understanding that he is the best possible where these are concerned.
couldn't stop myself from pulling one out and cleaning it up.
what you represents over an hour of work.man that glue was hard as a Pre-:nono:
well you know how hard it was....
it'll probably cost extra for that-

I left mine alone and sent them to Bill. He cleaned all the old re-glued replacement foam surrounds off and installed his new ones. There was no extra charge. The guy I bought mine from said he'd had the woofers professionally re-foamed. The glue sure failed and the foam did not fit the Watkins cone configuration very well.
Check the Watkins website to be sure, but I believe Bill guarantees his work for 5 years. I paid almost as much for the woofers to be refurbed as I did for the speakers, but I want to be happy with the end result, so I just went ahead and did it.

Larry D.

1.0625 thick wall construction!

idadude said:

I left mine alone and sent them to Bill. He cleaned all the old re-glued replacement foam surrounds off and installed his new ones. There was no extra charge. The guy I bought mine from said he'd had the woofers professionally re-foamed. The glue sure failed and the foam did not fit the Watkins cone configuration very well.
Check the Watkins website to be sure, but I believe Bill guarantees his work for 5 years.

Larry D.

Click to expand...

yes-5 years i saw that. for 200.00 ish dollars i can't see a lot of room for additional charges!i'm going to call orangecountyspeaker tomorrow
and feel them out.i understand that 2.5's are a bit uncommon but has anyone here on AK had a successful refoam?

I used the orange county foam kit on my 2.5 woofers, It seemed to be a tad stiffer than the orginal, I removed the dust cap and shimmed the cone to keep a correct alighment in the voice coil and propped the spider flat, Used to be able to buy new from Infinity in early 90's for 79.00 ea. Still have 4 spares left

ultimately a baseline is tough to have if were staring from zero.
having said that what wasyour outcome?
i don't think i've used OCS.
what glue do they send?
simplypeaker has the best from my experiments.

moebuster said:

-and i may do that.i just need to get my mind around a 200 dollar refoam job with the understanding that he is the best possible where these are concerned.
couldn't stop myself from pulling one out and cleaning it up.
what you represents over an hour of work.man that glue was hard as a Pre-:nono:
well you know how hard it was....
it'll probably cost extra for that-

Click to expand...

That's half the work.
Ebay "12" Infinity foam surrounds" search for a seller that gives all dimensions of the surround.
Make sure it's a minimum of 9" for the inside measurement.
A slightly angled inner lip is required.
Aleens glue is cery forgiving.

not sure i'll end up doing this myself.i'll weigh it out and see. if and if that's a big if-
if i get something reassuring feedback from either ocs or simplyspeaker i will
at least buy the surrounds,lay them up on the basket and see if they fit.
if not i'll use them somewhere on something and bite the bullet and ship the drivers off to Kingsport.traded some gear i had about a benny in for them.and i'm as happy as a clam.i gather clams are easily amused...

I had Parts Express do my Watkins woofers in 2011. They did a great job and with free shipping back, it was very cheap compared to everyone else. I've refoamed my own woofers but for the money, this was worth every penny. Looks like it will be $41.75 a woofer plus shipping there. Even if your model number isn't there just click unknown. The list of model numbers has gotten longer since they've offered speaker repair. They look and sound great.

these were from RS 2.5's ?

Not sure as I purchased off the bay. They were the gray cone which were used in all RS 1.5s, 2.5s and 4.5s during that time frame.

.. so you sent them the surrounds along with the drivers.

My surrounds were barely there also. I didn't clean them up before I sent the drivers though. Give their tech. department a call if you have any questions before shipping. Their customer service and tech. departments have always been good to me.